'End vile practice of female mutilation'

UP TO 100,000 schoolgirls are at risk of sexual ­mutilation that causes permanent physical and emotional damage. Many are taken abroad but ­others are secretively maimed in Britain as part of a shocking cultural practice that is condoned by the ­victims’ families.

Until now little has been done to prevent this horrific custom. Female genital mutilation has been a criminal offence for 30 years but there has never been a prosecution.

Last week that began to change. In the first of a series of top-level meetings in London, a group of ­senior police, government officials and experts led by director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer began work on tough new measures to crack down on the barbarity.

Mr Starmer said: “It’s critical ­everything possible is done to bring those who commit these offences against young girls and women to justice and this action plan is a major step in the right direction.

“I’m determined the Crown Prosecution Service should play a key role in ensuring the impunity with which these offenders have acted will end.”

A key player at the meeting Efua Dorkenoo, director of campaigning group Equality Now, said: “This issue has not been taken ­seriously to date, as many professionals consider it a cultural practice and are reluctant to address this for fear of being accused of racism.

“Female genital mutilation is child abuse – in all instances children experience confusion, guilt, fear and anxiety. The victim is silenced and any sense of entitlement to her natural sexuality is removed forever.”

Crime novelist Baroness Ruth Rendell, who has been a campaigner for more than a decade, said: “It is unbelievable this is done to little girls in this country, which has become a safe haven for people to carry out this brutal practice.”

Britain compares badly against other European countries in its lack of action against the procedure that is practised in central Africa and some Arab countries.

Research from the Orchid Project campaign group shows more than 5,000 communities in Africa have abandoned the practice yet more cases are coming to light in Britain. There are no official figures – one major study showed 24,000 girls are at risk. However experts fear the true figure is up to four times higher.

Jane Ellison MP, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Female Genital Mutilation, said it was time to stop treading gently.

He added: “Fear of condemnation or crossing the line, or being accused of racism is allowing this brutal abuse to go on. It is racist not to look after these girls because it is treating them ­differently. If these were white ­middle-class girls there would be public outrage. These girls are ­British. They deserve the full ­protection of our laws.”

The Home Office last month launched a “Health Passport” which outlines UK laws on female genital mutilation designed to protect women from their own families.

Sunday Express inquiries reveal that in some parts of the country children are taken to female ­mutilation parties. One victim said: “At first the girls are all excited because it’s a party, until they ­realise what is going to happen and then they get frightened.”

In other cases operations are carried out in homes, sometimes by doctors. Alma, now 11, who was born and brought up in north London, was eight when she was mutilated along with her two sisters. She was taken to Somalia on what she had thought was a holiday to see family.

Fear of condemnation or crossing the line, or being accused of racism is allowing this brutal abuse to go on

Jane Ellison MP, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Female Genital Mutilation

She said: “They didn’t tell us we were going to be circumcised. The day before our operations were due to take place another girl was ­circumcised and died.

“We were so scared but our ­parents told us it was a religious obligation. It was terrible. We really thought we were going to die because of the pain. We had no anaesthetic. We each had ladies holding us down. My memory of the pain never goes. One friend ­suffers nightmares constantly. I don’t see myself getting married.” Many victims continue to suffer pain, repeated infections, infertility, and problems giving birth, apart from psychological scars.

The NHS has 17 specialist clinics offering counselling and specially trained midwives. Births can be a difficult procedure because of the way some victims are sewn up.

But demand for services is greater than the limited resources. A Royal College of Midwives survey revealed a third of midwives have cared for ­victims but 22 per cent of NHS trusts do not have guidelines.

One specialist worker in London said: “We see victims every day. There is not enough support.”

Another said: “A lot of women ­suffer in silence. They have low expectations for themselves and many medical problems.”